17 replies to this topic

[Esperax]

Just wondering

PGI is relatively new to the scene, and if a more experience developer had developed this game, would we still encounter the issues this game faces today? Like network, hitbox, coding issues? Even the UI is, sadly very much a disaster.

[Turist0AT]

If it were F2P i think we would have had same shite, but more polished with a new dev. But the new dev migh have a different F2P buisness model and could be greedier. So we could have had more grind.

Ive herd MekTek crew are pretty good. Did they make MWLL?

Edited by Turist0AT, 15 April 2014 - 11:52 PM.

[MustrumRidcully]

I figure a different developer may have done a lot of things differently, simply because different teams work differently.
I figure a more experienced game developer and/or a larger team might have made a better game. Maybe even a similar experienced developer but without a background in doing the type of games PGI used to do make before it started Mechwarrior (or before it was called PGI. Jarhead games is, I believe, one of their predecessors).

Quote

Ive herd MekTek crew are pretty good. Did they make MWLL?

No, they did not. I believe several of the MW:LL team members have gone on to Crytek and Star Citizen.

MW:LL was also very different from M:WO. It was combined arms, and they had no customziation options (at least not in the latest released versions of the game - they may have eventually done it.). ALso, their concept of matches was different - you had respawns, I believe you needed to buy ships and there was some kind of "recovery/comeback" mechanic so that a losing team had a chance to get enough resources and thus units to come back.
They didn't have someone as brilliant as Flying Debris making their mech models, unfortunately.

Edited by MustrumRidcully, 16 April 2014 - 12:02 AM.

[CrashieJ]

MustrumRidcully, on 15 April 2014 - 11:59 PM, said:

They didn't have someone as brilliant as Flying Debris making their mech models, unfortunately.

true but the guys over at star citizen actually listen to and take points from the community.

[StaIker]

PGI's failing is that no one there had any prior experience with Mechwarrior or the community/fanbase that existed from Mech4.

The fans had been thinking about a Mechwarrior5 product for a long, long time and their experience in leagues gave them a pretty good idea of how it should look and how it should be run.

Then PGI comes along and does whatever the hell they please, as if there is no history, no backstory, no community expectation and nothing to build on, remaking Mechwarrior into Generic Robot Fighting Game 1.0. The same would happen with any other group of Devs that was not connected to Mechwarrior in the past.

The community knew what it wanted, PGI assumed they'd take whatever they were given. They were wrong.

[Crimson Fenris]

In a not so distant future, let's hope someone like Chris Roberts could buy this franchise and make something better than we have now...

The main problem here is not especially the product quality, it's the sluggish pace this game is developed. THe game itself is an enjoyable shooter, with honourable graphics, very good mechs concepts and very decent graphical effects and sounds.

It's simply lacking a ton of content : 9 different maps with 3 redundant gamemodes (basically the same, kill ennemy mechs every time), no lobbies or even the slightest option to configure a game and select the played map, no role-warfare, no community warfare, no ingame communications tools outside of teamspeak....
All of that led by one of the worst UI of all times, both unintuitive, clunky and failing to meet any of its intended goal, let the entire experience with a bitter taste, especially since it's been more than 2 years of development behind.

Talents are undoubtly here, on the graphic part mostly, but they're hindered by all the bad work around, with an horrific project managment which leads to make such a small team struggling in all accomplishments.

Let's hope they either finally hire some more people to make things faster, or sell the IP for a symbolic amount to a much more competent team.
I don't want to wait 2018 to see this game finally becoming the advertised (thus expected) product...

Edited by Crimson Fenris, 16 April 2014 - 01:21 AM.

[Soulscour]

gavilatius, on 16 April 2014 - 12:57 AM, said:

true but the guys over at star citizen actually listen to and take points from the community.

0 content has been released. Its all promises so far. It is currently a 42 million dollar promise.

[Axeman1]

Anyone could have made this game better, PGI has turned this game into a free to play macro transaction money grab. A tanking one at that.

What, you want actual content? Naaaah more mechs for you for real money only for the first month.

Edited by Axeman1, 16 April 2014 - 01:31 AM.

[Sarlic]

I think they are doing fine. Quit the bashing already. They are Learning like every other new player enters the game.

[IceCase88]

Yes. It is not like they are making a new franchise out-of-whole-cloth. It is a storied franchise with much history and a large player-base. The profits are imbedded in the franchise which is why they have made so much money so far. However, it appears they want to make a minimally viable product per law and then dump it.

Three years and not a glimmer of anything they promised... What happened to all the grand plans and original deadlines? What happened to all that alleged work that was done? Was it poor workmanship? Was it poor project management? Or was it a minimally viable product idea from the start? Especially when you see the success and accomplishments of new F2P franchises that are more speculative. This one had an extremely large fan base and proven track record. Is this product deserving of the MechWarrior/Battletech name? Absolutely not. If PGI wants to make MWO as they "envisioned" then they better start pushing out the content with few flaws or games like Star Citizen will be the nail in their coffin. I won't stop playing MWO but I will definitely login less if progression is not seen soon. Star Citizen will definitely be the nail in the coffin for me and many other players.

[ThatBum42]

I personally think it's a great game and it can only get better from here, but no one listens to me because I don't shout the loudest.

[Axeman1]

ThatBum42, on 16 April 2014 - 04:03 AM, said:

I personally think it's a great game and it can only get better from here

People have been saying that since beta

Edited by Axeman1, 16 April 2014 - 05:50 AM.

[ThatBum42]

Axeman1, on 16 April 2014 - 05:49 AM, said:

People have been saying that since beta

Maybe at one time, but evidently not now, since threads like this exist.

[Esperax]

There is so much potential in this game, but sadly we have developers that do not know how to tap into it. I guess we will have to wait another decade again

[Alaskan Nobody]

In answer to the OP?

No.

Why?
Look at who owns Mechwarrior - look at the way any game they own (or have anything to do with the development of) ends up.
Craptons of unwanted features.

It would not have mattered who made this game - it was going to deviate from how we (and PGI for that matter, remember the "hook" for the founders was their dream as well) wanted it.

[xXBagheeraXx]

The dudes that made Mechwarrior living legends would probably be billionaires by now. I'd have a garage full of hero mechs, and would probably be a few hundred dollars in debt giving them all my money.

[Sealawyer]

The current game is boring as hell, so yes, I think anyone could have done better. I mean, I actually still play MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries. I think that says something in and of itself. That I can play that old game over and over and find this one extremely boring.

[IraqiWalker]

OP, people have been bashing this game and saying that it was dying, since before closed beta, and in fact since before the game even came out (not joking on those two accounts).

I honestly think another team could have gone either way, possibly wrecking it, or making it better.

The problem, the REAL problem, is that PGI is tiny, 40-ish people on something this massive can't really do much if even one big bug shows up in the system. My classmates and I worked on designing a program for the history department in my college, there was maybe 20 of us, it took us the better part of the entire school year to get it somewhat done. Our program had blobs that shrunk and grew and moved around as they were fed new data. We did that with Java, which is a somewhat easy language to use, especially for us who were about to become senior comp-sci majors.

The fact that these guys have managed to put all of this together, with such a minuscule crew is honestly good in my opinion. Sure, the game could be better, sure, the UI could be improved. Well, both of those things are literally happening right before our eyes. We're getting more content, we're getting patches that are fixing issues we're dealing with(which does slow down development in other areas), and we're moving forward.